Study Tactics
by A113 Cowgirl
Summary: (Established relationship) Opposites attract, and sometimes for good reason.


Requested by Cartoontees on tumblr.

 **Study Tactics**

"Eileeeeen! I'm home from work, and I brought take-out…" Rigby called from the doorway in a sing-song voice. He struggled to hold the armful while removing the keys from the door, then slammed it behind him. Delivering the aromatic plastic bag of food cartons to the kitchen table, he scanned the apartment for her, coming up blank.

"Yo Eileen, where you at?" Not finding her in any of her usual locations, he flipped through his memory trying to recall a forgotten dance practice, shift at the restaurant, or anything else that may be keeping her from home.

Just as he was breaking out his phone to call her, he came across her sleeping form, leaning against her bed with textbooks scattered around her.

"Eileen? Wakey wakey" he gently rocked her shoulder, and she awoke with a start, pushing his hand off of her shoulder in an instinctive motion. Rigby laughed, "Whoa, easy there tiger. And good morning, or evening actually." Realizing the identity of the intruder, she calmed and adjusted her glasses.

"Ugh, what time is it? I must have dozed off while I was studying." Rigby shrugged.

"Probably around 5:30 or 6:00." He answered nonchalantly.

"What?" She panicked, "Oh man, I slept for over an hour, then! Ugh, I have to make up for lost time" She shuffled for some pieces of notebook paper nearby.

"Hey, wait, how long have you been studying? You were still up when I went to bed last night, and you were up before me this morning." Rigby questioned, suddenly very concerned. He had moved into her and Margaret's small abode all but in name, to which Mordecai had hardly noticed. Which of course offended the raccoon only made him linger at their place even more.

"Well," she began sheepishly "I stayed up until like 3 studying, then I tried to go to sleep but I couldn't shut my mind off so I just got back up and started studying again."

"Eileen, that's not good for you! You've pretty much been studying for like, 12 hours straight!" He almost shouted.

She sighed. "Rigby, I have to get a good grade on this midterm. I don't get t keep my scholarships if my GPA drops, and then I can't afford school at all. And then I'll be stuck at this job my whole life, and I'll die unfulfilled and unhappy." He laughed at her slippery-slope philosophy.

"Look, I may not be the best one to be giving school advice, but I do recall hearing somewhere that cramming for a test instead of sleeping is statistically worse for your grade. Plus it's just not good to study for 12 hours anyway. Actually, it's disgusting. Just saying it makes me uncomfortable." His advice cheered her up and calmed her nerves.

"I know, but every time I try to quit I remember some other fact that I don't remember."

"This is for your choreography class, right?" She nodded. "C'mon, Eileen, you know that junk!"

She sighed. "Well, hopefully I do."

"I think you're being too hard on yourself, and not trusting in your training. So c'mon, lets put the books down for a while. I brought home your favorite" He tempted, with her favorite flirtatious grin on his face.

"Ethiopian food?" She guessed with a smile.

"You got it mama. Let's go." He dragged her by the hand to the kitchen, as she resisted the urge to grab some flashcards to bring with her.

After the dinner was done and the leftovers were in the fridge, they still sat comfortably on the couch.

"Okay, you were right. That was great and I needed it, but it's high time I get back to the books." She announced and started to get to her feet.

"No, no no!" Rigby protested, grabbing her forearm to anchor her to the couch. "C'mon, Eileen! You've done all the studying you can do, plus I'm serious, going that hard is bad for your brain, you're gunna have a mental breakdown before this test."

"Well, what do you want me to do? Just not study at all? The test is _tomorrow_ , Rigby." She reasoned. He shook his head.

"Eileen, I'm just saying I'm worried about you. And this isn't me saying school is unimportant, or me being lazy, or anything like that. This is me trying to loan you some of my unproductive nature when you need it, like now. Sometimes you push yourself a little too hard." Her expression turned from discomfort to understanding, and her pull against his grip gave way. "Just trust me on this one, okay?" She sighed in defeat. "Okay, I'm trusting you." He smiled victoriously.

"Good. Then you are hereby challenged to do no more studying tonight, from this point on you shall relax and get a good night's sleep." Her brows raised.

"None at all?" She panicked.

"Nope. Just movies, chillin and restin." She squinted at him.

"Ten minutes to read over my notes at the end of the night, and you have a deal." She bargained.

"Deal." and he shook her extended hand. "Now, let me educate you in the art of relaxation." He said proudly, and started a movie on the tv.

 _I hope I'm not making a mistake_ , she thought.

Hours later, the sun had set and the only light in the room came from the changing shots on the tv screen. Margaret was apparently not coming home, or at least not until later.

Eileen had, admittedly, gotten the exam off of her mind temporarily and was genuinely enjoying the films they were indulging in.

"Ha! Aw man, I swear this guy is great in everything he's in. It's like he plays the same character in every movie." Rigby noted, pointing at the screen with the arm that wasn't affectionately wound around her waist. She smiled at his enthusiastic commentary, although her mind was straying to other topics. The fight-choreography in the scene was reminding her of vocabulary terms she couldn't remember if she remembered.

"ooh ooh, watch this part, tell me if you catch the blooper," Rigby said.

In an attempt to be discreet, she slowly raised her head from it's resting spot on his shoulder, and retrieved her phone from her pocket in secret. Checking to see if his line of vision remained directed at the movie, she nervously bit her lip and pulled up the picture she'd taken of her vocabulary terms study sheet.

"Jose Limon- expanded on the ideas of fall-and-recovery and the idea of weightlessness and-" A hand suddenly covered her phone. She gasped.

"Caught you." He grinned.

"I was just, you know..." She struggled

"Cheating." he finished for her. "Hand it over, you've lost your privileges." He placed her phone on the other side of him. She groaned in frustration and fell back against the couchback.

"I'm sorry, I just can't stop stressing. I just keep thinking, what if I can't keep these scholarships? What if this all falls apart because of my test-taking abilities?" She said to the ceiling. He frowned concerningly and gathered her in his arms, leaning back with her.

"I know you rock at this stuff and that will never happen. And I know you know that, too." He comforted, stroking her hair in an attempt to soothe her. She smiled into his shoulder.

"Thanks, Rigby." She raised her head to kiss him on the lips in gratitude, to which he could only respond in kind. Within a moment, the movie was forgotten and the two of them were wrapped up in one another, exchanging flirtations between soft kisses. The track of time was lost within their embraces, and a good time later it was Rigby who thought to check the clock.

"Oh hey, it's almost eleven. What time do you have to get up?" Her eyes shot open from her relaxed state laying on his chest, suddenly tense.

"Seven," She answered. "Oh man, my required pre-test-eight-hours-of-sleep has to start _now_." She shot up and fumbled to turn off the television and lock the front door, hurrying off to her bedroom. Rigby followed and found her very quickly packing her books and such into her backpack, and crouched down to help her. He picked up her study guide, and handed it to her.

"As promised, your ten minutes of studying. You did good tonight, young grasshopper." He teased. She smiled and took the papers from him, but turned to put them in her bag instead.

"Thank you but no thank you. I think I'm studied enough, and at this point I need sleep more than anything. She put her bag by the doorway and proceeded to flop down onto her bed, patting the empty space beside her.

"C'mon, I could use a big spoon." She invited, to which Rigby eagerly complied. They got themselves comfortable, and after she turned off the lamp by her bedside she turned to kiss him goodnight in the darkness.

"Thank you for your help tonight, Rigby, really. I think I would have had a meltdown if you hadn't interfered." He smiled though she couldn't see it.

"Hey, anytime. I'm glad you didn't explode from stress. You good now?" She nodded into the pillow, closing her eyes and snuggling against him contently.

"I'm good now."

Of course, when she came home the following week proudly thrusting an A+ in the air, they just _had_ to celebrate with more Ethiopian food.


End file.
